Lectures in the History of Political Thought

Oakeshott's memorable lectures on the history of political thought, delivered each year at the London School of Economics, are now available in print for the first time as Volume II of his Selected Writings.

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Oakeshott's memorable lectures on the history of political thought, delivered each year at the London School of Economics, will now be available in print for the first time as Volume II of his Selected Writings. Based on manuscripts in the LSE archive for 1966–67, the last year of Oakeshott’s tenure as Professor of Political Science, these thirty lectures deal with Greek, Roman, mediaeval, and modern European political thought in a uniquely accessible manner. Scholars familiar with Oakeshott’s work will recognize his own ideas subtly blended with an exposition carefully crafted for an undergraduate audience; those discovering Oakeshott for the first time will find an account of the subject that remains illuminating and provocative.

Source: Times Literary Supplement

"A tour de force in literary terms no less than intellectual."

Source: Times Literary Supplement

Credit: Kenneth Minogue

"Oakeshott's lectures are a major contribution both to political education in general and the history of political thought in particular. It is this text which Terry Nardin and Luke O'Sullivan have edited with such skill."

Source: Quadrant

Credit: Peter Coleman

"The lectures were a tour de force."

Source: Political Studies Review

Credit: David Boucher

"[The] editors have skilfully produced a publication that shows little evidence of the lecture form."